What I’m Watching: Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black: Season 4, Episode 9 “Turn Table Turn” (B+)

This show really knows how to time its backstories to present them at the most compelling times. Seeing Flores as a caretaker who was treated much more as a servant by her unkind employer who went so far as to fire another employee since she felt he was distracting Flores from focusing on her helped to expose the way that she responds to being threatened. Having loud sex in front of her bedbound employer was a formidable form of revenge, and she got her to be very submissive and agreeable after that. Continuing to douse herself with putrid smells after being repeatedly told to clean up was a similar form of protest, and standing on a table for a long period of time isn’t going to teach her any sort of lesson. This episode had a lot to do with guards trying to exercise their authority in different ways. Luschek managed to find an astonishing number of phones, and Piscatella commended him for it while insulting what he perceived as his competence. Cindy and Judy are having their fun pretending to be a couple, and that continues to be casual and calm enough, like Piper and Alex, both back in a good place, debating the merits of trading sexual favors for Shake Shack burgers. On a more serious note, Sister Ingalls getting sent to solitary to find Sophia was dark and grim and isn’t likely to be too successful. Most disturbing of all, Maritza found herself in the middle of an awful and twisted show of power designed to test whether she really would eat a live baby mouse over ten dead insects. I can’t imagine how that will come to light, but it may well be the most unsettling thing to happen yet on this show.